An Interesting Chat
by J. Nebula
Summary: Pre-Jily for Halloween. Lily is finally processing what happened with her (ex)best friend a few days afterwards, when she is interrupted by James Potter. The conversation that ensues leaves her thinking. One-shot. Probably canon.


**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Series is the propert of JK Rowling and Warner Brothers Studios. I do not own the characters, setting, or unoriginal ideas in this work, ano I do not collect monetary profit for this work.**

 **A/N: This is my first Marauders Era fic, so please keep that in mind when you read. It's pre-Jily. It's fairly canon I suppose, as while it was specified that James and Lily got together in their seventh year, nobody said when they became friends. This is a one-shot, but I may add more stories that correlate to it. Thank you, and enjoy the reading.**

Though she did so often, crying was not a favorite activity of hers. It made her feel weaker, like less of a spitfire. Overall, she despised crying.

Why was she crying over her git of an ex-best-friend? They hadn't truly been that close since third year, but losing the person you were closest to from the ages of ten to thirteen, especially because he called you a terrible slur, was devastating, even days after the fact if you hadn't processed it.

Lily carded her hand through her garnet-colored locks, marveling at how messy they had gotten as she had her breakdown. Grabbing her wand, she conjured a handkerchief to dry her eyes and nose.

Upon discarding the dirty handkerchief, she was broken from her thoughts by the sound of footsteps. Rather soft footsteps, but still audible.

She quickly stood up from the window seat she had found in a small room on the seventh floor, and straightened out her clothes, expecting to have to interrupt a tryst. Instead, she saw a very familiar figure emerge from thin air.

"Potter, what are you doing here? And when did you get an invisibility cloak?" Lily demanded loudly.

"Shh, Evans. Filch'll catch me if he hears us, and by extension see you, and assume you're involved," Potter replied, pushing his falling square spectacles up his wide nose.

"What did you and your gang do now?" Lily asked in exasperation, shooting him a green-eyed glare that was weaker than usual.

"Hey, gang implies violence. We aren't Death Eaters. The only people we duel, coincidentally, plan to join the Death Eaters," Potter said in offense.

"Fine. What did your merry-band-of-misfits do now?" Lily asked, ignoring the fact that her old friend, the back-stabbing git, was part of the latter group that Potter mentioned. The rosy flush of anger to her fair skin was purely coincidental.

"Ask me no questions, and I shall tell you no lies," Potter said evasively, running a hand through his ashy black tangles.

Lily sighed. Honestly, why would she even expect a confession? Potter wasn't going to tell her anything incriminating beyond what had already been said.

"While I'm in here, I just want to apologize for asking you out like that. I've been informed that that could be seen as extortion and was totally inappropriate. I should not have done that at that time. I will not however, apologize for the whole thing with Sniv-Snape. He's been my nemesis since first year, and was definitely willing to fight back," Potter said, his hazel eyes hardening as he spoke of Snape.

"Thank you for the apology, but I'm not really upset over that. I'm not angry that you fought with Sev-Snape, I'm angry that you instigated it, and that it was two-on-one. At the moment, though, I'm far more angry with the bastard that used to call himself my best friend," Lily said.

"That must be rough. Are you okay?" Potter asked, his golden brown face crinkled in sympathy.

"I will be," Lily said after a moment. She had survived worse than losing a friend before. After all, she had lost her father when she was five.

"Alright. Remus might work out prefect rounds with you until you feel better if you talk to him. He's rather good at doing little things like that. I'd offer to help, but I'm not much help, and to be honest, this is our first civil conversation outside of class for years, so I'd probably not be your first choice," Potter said.

"Perhaps not, but thanks anyway. You're being rather more thoughtful and less arrogant than usual," Lily said, remarking at the strangeness that she hadn't been able to place before.

"I'm not always like that, you know. I've been known to be almost sensitive around people in private," Potter said with a slight smirk.

"I can see that," Lily remarked dryly.

Potter laughed at her sarcastic tone. "You know, you're alright when you aren't yelling at me, Evans."

"Well, if your pranks didn't keep getting people caught in the crossfire, I wouldn't be yelling at you all the time. I mean, pranking the likes of Avery and Mulciber and their gang is one thing, but the younger years from their house keep getting hit with it too. You're traumatizing those poor kids, and they're not even old enough to have formed their own opinions yet. They aren't Death Eaters in training, they're just children," Lily said passionately.

Potter looked as if he was mulling this idea over. After a few moments contemplating, he said, "I guess we weren't thinking about that. It's always been a single minded approach. I'll talk to everyone and see if we can avoid the kiddies when we prank anything more harmful than a color changing charm."

"Thanks, that means a lot to me," Lily said, surprised that he was so receptive.

"No problem, Evans. I'm going to leave now. I think Filch is gone," Potter said.

"Alright, Potter," Lily said, though Potter was already halfway out of the door. She sighed.

Well, she may have lost a friend, but perhaps she made a new one. Even if the new one was as arrogant as anything and knew nothing of her background. Still, there were worse people to befriend than James Potter.


End file.
